Let The Dumplings Cool by Helen Liu
A bowl of steaming hot dumplings is delicious, but must be savored carefully. I was reminded of that today during lunch: I arrived at my spot to find an appetizing bowl of large dumplings (in Mandarin, they’re called 饺子) waiting for me. I knew they were hot; I could see the steam rising from the bowl.
I didn’t want to nurse a burnt tongue for the rest of the day, so I resolved to eat the dumplings carefully. I started with the dumplings at the top of the pile – the ones that weren’t submerged in hot soup. I blew on the ends until they were cool enough to bite and repeated the process until I could safely eat the entire dumpling. The key was to have enough patience to let the dumplings cool down first instead of giving in to the temptation to devour them with a single bite.
Just like my eagerness to eat dumplings, sometimes I also get so excited to dive into something new that I don’t stop to think about the future impact of what I’m doing.
In the past, I let my enjoyment of being involved sign me up for everything I possibly could – full classes, summer programs, clubs, and volunteer events, to name a few. The result was that I was chronically stretched thin with time and almost always stressed.
I was not able to spend enough time with myself to replenish my energy and enjoy life. To remedy this, I needed to let myself cool down first and ask myself important questions, such as:
Do I have time for this?
Do I really have time for this?
Can someone else with more time to dedicate do a better job?
Can I still be involved without taking on a role that comes with greater commitment?
Answering these questions honestly (at least, after the first one) helped me determine how to fulfill my interests without overloading myself. I found myself taking more hands-off roles in organizations and dedicating less time to overachieving. This allowed me to dedicate more time to my priorities and set myself up for effective and fulfilling time management.
That was a great first step, but there’s more to it. Before eating a potentially too-hot dumpling, I need to know that I won’t harm myself if I put it in my mouth. I use my lips to test the outside temperature before slowly biting into it. If anything hurts (e.g. if hot soup spills out of the dumpling and burns my tongue), I listen to my body and remove the dumpling from my mouth.
Similarly, when getting into a task, we should listen to our bodies. Have we been sitting for too long? Staring at screens for too long? Not hydrated in a while? Are we feeling joint pain? Back pain? Neck pain? Eye strain? Fatigue? I encourage you to take a break from reading this article and check in with your body right now. Is it feeling good? Does it need a short walk or perhaps a longer rest away from whatever you’re doing?
Take a moment and care for yourself. This will still be here when you return. :)
Just listening to our bodies isn’t enough, though. Just because the end of a dumpling is cool enough to eat, doesn’t mean the entire dumpling is. Perhaps the middle part with the most filling is a lot hotter than the end and still has the potential to burn. The best way to make sure the whole dumpling is safe to eat is by checking the whole dumpling, bit by bit. When I eat dumplings, I make anywhere from 3 to 5 bites, pausing in between to let the dumpling cool down further as needed.
In the same manner, I split tasks up into smaller subtasks, creating built-in checkpoints as I work through a project. Not only does it make a larger project less overwhelming, but it also gives me a clearer direction to work in, increasing my efficiency. Additionally, I make sure to check in with myself whenever I start feeling my eyelids droop from fatigue or when I notice I haven’t left my desk for a while. Do I need to stretch? Do I need to call it a day and go to sleep?
Another check-in I like to keep in mind is the 20-20-20 Rule. This rule, which I learned from an eye doctor, states that every 20 minutes, you should take a 20-second break by looking at something 20 feet away. For me, that usually means I look out a window at the forest surrounding my house. I don’t know if it has helped my eyesight, but looking far out at nature improves my mood, especially when I feel trapped within my home.
Back to the dumplings: the entire temperature-testing and eating bit-by-bit process will take a little bit, but it will be worth it when I can enjoy my dumplings without worrying about a burnt tongue afterward. However, it does sound a bit slow, doesn’t it? What if I’m in a hurry, or what if I just want to finish eating faster?
Thinking back, the dumplings that have the most trouble cooling down are the ones that are submerged in the hot soup. Aha! I can grab a plate and move some of my dumplings from the bowl to the dry plate. I won’t remove all of them because I still want some to be warm when I eat them later; if all of them cooled now, I would be stuck eating cold dumplings later. The plate-to-bowl dumpling ratio is just enough that I can enjoy all the dumplings on the plate faster while still getting to enjoy warm dumplings later.
Ultimately, the idea is to figure out the problem, find a solution, and solve it in a way that matches your pace, like how the plate-to-bowl dumpling ratio matches my eating pace. It will take time, but keep actively working towards your goals and experimenting with solutions.
Additional tools for when you may be in crisis:
U.S. Crisis Text Line: 741-741
Ohio Mobile Response and Stabilization Services: 1-888-418-MRSS (6777)